Dear Mr. Perez,
Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on the discharging of gay and lesbian service members from the military. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.
The Pentagon's current policy on gay men and women serving in the military, commonly referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), reflects the belief that a service member's sexual orientation is a private matter. Members of the military are not permitted to ask about another service member's sexual orientation, and gay service members are not to discuss their sexual orientation. The U.S. military has supported the policy based on concerns for readiness and unit cohesion. The practical effect of DADT is that it prevents gay men and women from serving openly in the military. In fact, as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen has noted, gay and lesbian Americans have been admirably serving for decades in the armed services, but have always risked discharge if their sexual orientation ever became known.
As you may know, during his State of the Union address in January, President Obama called on Congress to repeal the Pentagon's current DADT policy, which is formalized in Public Law 103-160 (USC § 654). The President's call for a repeal would put America's armed forces in alignment with our North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners who are fighting side-by-side with our men and women in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Our NATO partners currently allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in their militaries. Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, has stated that having openly gay and lesbian service members is "working out quite well."
On February 2, 2010, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), of which I am a member, held the first hearing on DADT since 1993. During the hearing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen expressed his personal support for repealing DADT. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the Department of Defense would begin studying how to implement a repeal of DADT. Gates and Mullen join other prominent military leaders in supporting repeal, including General John Shalikashvili (Ret.), General Colin Powell (Ret.) and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. The support of these current and former senior military leaders, who formerly supported DADT, is echoed by many other former military leaders and reflects a major shift in views from military leaders from 1993.
On May 28, 2010, I voted with my colleagues on the SASC to include a compromise amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) that would repeal DADT. However, the repeal of DADT would occur only after the completion of a comprehensive review to obtain the perspectives of servicemembers and their families on the potential impact of a repeal. Additionally, under the compromise passed by the SASC, the repeal would only be able to take effect after President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify to Congress that they have considered the results of the review and that the repeal would not negatively impact military effectiveness, unit cohesion or recruiting and retention. I believe these are important safeguards that make sure the voices of our military servicemembers and their families are fully considered before a repeal is put in place and that ensures that both military and civilian leadership jointly certify that a repeal will not negatively impact our armed forces before the repeal is put in place. The DADT compromise provision must now be considered by the full Senate.
As you may know, the House of Representatives passed its FY11 defense policy bill on May 28, 2010, and included in the bill a similar compromise approach to repealing the DADT policy. The House and Senate must both pass their defense policy bills, come together to work out differences in the two bills and then, ultimately, pass an identical bill before it can be sent to the President to be signed into law.
President Obama has stated that it is time to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and I agree with him. We must recognize that thousands of brave, gay Americans have served -- and are currently serving -- in our military. I look forward to the completion of the review the military is conducting of how to implement a repeal and to seeing the many gay and lesbian men and women heroically serving in our military today, including in combat, being able to serve with greater integrity by not having to hide or lie about who they are.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance to you on this or any other issue.
Sincerely,
Claire McCaskill
United States Senator
P.S. If you would like more information about resources that can help Missourians, or what I am doing in the Senate on your behalf, please sign up for my email newsletter at www.mccaskill.senate.gov.
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